The Health-Care Reformer

When he's not practicing yoga, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini is preparing the giant insurer for a new, cost-conscious era in American health care.

Mark Bertolini was no ordinary patient. After breaking his neck in five places in a ski accident in 2004, the health-care executive eventually said no to conventional painkillers, which he says dulled his senses and befuddled his mind. He turned instead to acupuncture, meditation, and yoga, which still help him take the edge off chronic pain. "I could have done drugs and probably not lived a very fruitful existence," says Bertolini, CEO of Aetna, the giant health-care insurer. "Or, I could get back to work and have...